Singer/songwriter Tom Chapin may not be as well known as contemporaries such as Fergie, Justin Timberlake or the White Stripes. But when he appeared on National Public Radio's Morning Edition last New Year's Day, he struck a chord that has resonated long, proud and strong among teachers who have been shackled by what many educators have dubbed "the dirtiest four-letter word around" - FCAT.
Never mind that FCAT is an acronym, not a word. That's beside the point, which is that the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test continues to be the anvil that weighs down the competitive education experience.
Chapin's ditty "Not on the Test" is a social commentary on the enormous stress placed on students, teachers and the education community to "teach the test" at the expense of anything that is vacant from state-mandated standardized assessments. And while this might be a slight generalization - many area teachers and administrators will proclaim that their respective educational communities continue to incorporate a variety of learning styles and methods into all areas of the curriculum - there is a symbolic truth to Chapin's stance, because so much in today's educational world rides on FCAT results.
Legislators and the Florida Department of Education staunchly insist that the process, which began under then-Gov. Jeb Bush nearly ten years ago, is a method by which educators can be held accountable. But there are many sharks swimming around Bush's A+ educational legacy.
One of the numerous problems is that the FCAT is, and has been and - until further notice - will be a glaringly unsound means by which to rate schools. When Bush devised the FCAT in 1998, it was to measure a child's progress in school.
Not any more. Or, at least, that doesn't seem to be the focus anymore. The FCAT helps decide whether third-graders get promoted and high school seniors graduate. It provides a letter grade for almost every school, which determines whether it is penalized or rewarded with extra money.
A second issue is that the FCAT is neither a criterion-referenced nor a diagnostic test, despite the premise presented by the Department of Education. Educators, parents and students are not allowed to review student responses after taking the test, and there are no legal opportunities for anyone directly involved in the child's educational process to review copies of it. Thus, it cannot be used to help educators identify specific student strengths or weaknesses, or plan child-appropriate lessons.
As far as school grades go, Wellington High School plans to appeal its "B" grade; despite earning more than 50 points above the minimum for an "A," the school was penalized because only 49 percent of its lowest readers showed growth. But there are questions about how, exactly, the state determines the crucial "lowest 25 percent" of students in reading and math. In previous cases, some student scores were counted more than once, while others were skipped, skewing a school's overall score.
And given a third problem with the FCAT - the Department of Education fiasco in May, when state education officials announced they botched one of last year's FCAT reading tests - there are question marks on everything from school grades and student retention to the status of Florida schools under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. This also may have administrators at WHS - and many other "borderline" schools across Florida - questioning the viability and legitimacy of any grade in any category when the state plays a role in determining the grade.
And that, we seriously doubt, was something anyone studied for when preparing to take the test.
This commentary originally appeared in the Town-Crier.
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